Topic: Employee Satisfaction, Evidence-Based Management, Rewards
Publication: Journal of Applied Psychology (JUL 2011)
Article: Promised and Delivered Inducements and Contributions: An Integrated View of Psychological Contract Appraisal
Authors: Lambert, L. S.
Reviewed By: Thaddeus Rada
One of the most common complaints an employee may have with their employing organization is that they are not be fairly or adequately compensated for the contributions that they are putting into the company. A complaint of this type gets down to the concept of a psychological contract, which consists of inducements and contributions. Both of these come in two “varieties,” promised and delivered. Promised inducements or contributions are commitments that an organization or an employee, respectively, commit to providing to the other. Delivered inducements or contributions are what the organization or employee actually provide to the other, which may deviate from the promised inducement or contribution.
Together, the balance, or lack thereof, between these four components determines the overall quality of the psychological contract between an employee and the organization they work for. The current study, by Lisa Schurer Lambert, addresses a gap in the psychological contract literature: the comparison, by employees, of inducements to contributions, particularly with respect to the weight that employees give to each component.
